5 Best & 5 Worst Asian Horror Movie Remakes Ever Made

4. One Missed Call

As one of the more derivative Japanese horrors out there, Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call has been described both as a cannibalisation of J-Horror tropes that came before it and a clever, self-knowing parody of an increasingly saturated genre. Whatever Miike’s intention the movie’s focus on technology as a tool for evil, in this case mobile phones, certainly shares some similarities with Ringu’s use of videotape and Pulse’s focus on the internet. Still, while it doesn’t hold a candle to Miike’s disturbingly brilliant horror Audition, the original One Missed Call is practically a masterpiece compared to its lacklustre American remake.

Lacking any of the visual style, black comedy and dread Miike infused his original film with, the remake ambles along uninterestingly offering only a slightly more enjoyable waste of an hour and a half than watching paint dry. It looks like distributors Warner Brothers sensed they had a flop on their hands too and consigned the American take on One Missed Call to a January dump month release date.

Widely regarded as one of the worst J-Horror remakes to ever disgrace the big screen, One Missed Call was given a pretty much universal panning from critics after its release. It ended up receiving the dubious accolade of a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, thus earning itself a not so coveted Mouldy Tomato Award in the process. Give it a miss if you want to avoid abject boredom.